Was ist der Mensch? Das ist die Kernfrage dieses Buches, die aus philosophischer Sicht bearbeitet wird. Es wird dafür argumentiert, dass der Mensch mehr ist als eine sehr komplexe Ansammlung materieller Elementarteilchen, die einfach nach den normalen Gesetzen der Physik miteinander zusammenwirken. Stattdessen muss man Menschen zusätzlich spezifisch menschliche Eigenschaften zuschreiben, die nicht vollständig aus den körperlichen Eigenschaften heraus erklärbar sind. Sie verfügen über Bewusstsein und können in einem gewissen Umfang frei handeln. Das sind psycho-physische Phänomene, die mit den Gesetzen (...) der Physik nicht vollständig erfasst werden können. Deswegen ist der Materialismus wahrscheinlich falsch, wenngleich er nicht definitiv widerlegbar ist. Die beste Antwort auf das uralte Leib-Seele-Problem ist der Polare Dualismus, ein Eigenschaftsdualismus, der die Welt als grundsätzlich psycho-physisch auffasst. Psycho-physische Zusammenhänge sind keine nachträgliche Verbindung zweier eigenständiger Seinsbereiche, sondern stehen in einem polaren Verhältnis zueinander. Keiner der Bereiche ist ohne den anderen denkbar, aber es kann auch keiner auf den jeweils anderen zurückgeführt werden. (shrink)

Im Jahr 1926 veroffentlichte Viktor von Weizsacker im ersten Jahrgang der von ihm gemeinsam mit Martin Buber und Joseph Wittig begrundeten Zeitschrift "Die Kreatur" einen Essay unter dem Titel "Die Schmerzen." Als sprachliche Form des Umgangs mit dem Schmerz wird dieser Text gleichwohl zum Pladoyer fur das Problematische am Verhaltnis von Schmerz und Sprache. Die Not der Unsagbarkeit lasst den Schmerz zum Indikator fur den Verlust einer Ordnung werden, die Sprache wie Leben allererst ermoglicht. "So wird die Wahrnehmung des Schmerzes (...) verwandelt in eine Kritik der Wirklichkeit, in ein Instrument der Scheidung von echt und unecht in der Erscheinung des Lebendigen."Weder war bislang der literarische und philosophische Wert dieses Essays im Blick, noch ist gesehen worden, dass mit dem hier dargestellten besonderen Zusammenhang von Schmerz und Sprache eine Grundlegung der therapeutischen Kompetenz Medizinischer Anthropologie erfolgt.So wirft der vorliegende Band nicht nur neues Licht auf die Genese eines bedeutsamen Versuchs zur Revision der Grundlagen moderner Medizin, er gibt uberdies Einblicke in eine faszinierende geistige Konstellation zu Beginn des vergangenen Jahrhunderts. Ihrer antiken Herkunft entsprechend, werden Literatur, Philosophie und Theologie zu Gefahrten der Medizin in der Sorge um den Menschen.Der Band ist dem Andenken an den Heidelberger Philosophen Reiner Wiehl gewidmet. (shrink)

Für Fichte gab es 1799 keine Lebensunmittelbarkeit ohne die Abstraktionsarbeit philosophischer Spekulation. Es gab keinen gemeinsamen Boden, den sowohl Spekulation als auch Leben einnehmen könnten. Reinhold strebte einen solchen gemeinsamen Boden an. Für Fichte stand aber dieser gemeinsame »Vereinigungspunkt« einer dialektischen Verhältnisbestimmung beider im Wege. Denn beide negieren einander, und sind in dieser Negation von einander abhängig. Leben gibt es nicht ohne spekulative Thematisierung. Philosophisches Denken muss andererseits aber auch in der Unmittelbarkeit des Lebens verwurzelt sein, um seine abstrahierende Gedankenarbeit (...) ausüben zu können. Fichte hat dies ganz deutlich gemacht 1799, zur Zeit des Höhepunktes des Atheismusstreits, in seinem Brief an Jacobi vom 22. April dieses Jahres. Er sagt. (shrink)

Für Fichte gab es 1799 keine Lebensunmittelbarkeit ohne die Abstraktionsarbeit philosophischer Spekulation. Es gab keinen gemeinsamen Boden, den sowohl Spekulation als auch Leben einnehmen könnten. Reinhold strebte einen solchen gemeinsamen Boden an. Für Fichte stand aber dieser gemeinsame »Vereinigungspunkt« einer dialektischen Verhältnisbestimmung beider im Wege. Denn beide negieren einander, und sind in dieser Negation von einander abhängig. Leben gibt es nicht ohne spekulative Thematisierung. Philosophisches Denken muss andererseits aber auch in der Unmittelbarkeit des Lebens verwurzelt sein, um seine abstrahierende Gedankenarbeit (...) ausüben zu können. Fichte hat dies ganz deutlich gemacht 1799, zur Zeit des Höhepunktes des Atheismusstreits, in seinem Brief an Jacobi vom 22. April dieses Jahres. Er sagt. (shrink)

Auch wenn Prof. Hammachers Interesse an einer inhaltlichen Auseinandersetzung über Jacobis problematische antijudaistische Polemik gegen Fichte und den Rationalismus nur begrenzt ist - sein Hauptanliegen besteht, wie er sagt, darin, Dokumente, die in der Jacobi-Ausgabe nicht untergebracht werden konnten, an dieser Stelle zu publizieren –, so können doch einige seiner sachlichen Einlassung und Missverständnisse nicht unwidersprochen bleiben. Anderes dagegen möchte ich als Bestätigung, ja sogar als Verstärkung meiner These zu den antijüdischen Tendenzen in Jacobis Kritik an Fichte und dem (...) Rationalismus ausdrücklich unterstreichen. Und schließlich möchte ich Hammachers Hinweis auf Jacobis »religiöse Haltung« aufgreifen und ihr religionsgeschichtlich ein wenig genauer nachgehen. Dabei wird sich zeigen, dass hier ein wichtiges Forschungsdesiderat liegt, das verdient - gerade was die Kontroverse Fichte-Jacobi betrifft –, gründlich aufgearbeitet zu werden. Ich meine, den je spezifisch protestantischen »Sozialisationshintergrund« von Fichte und Jacobi und dessen Einfluss auf ihr Denken. (shrink)

Trifft Jacobis unphilosophische Systemkritik auch Hegels Metaphysik absoluter Negativität? Dessen System gilt als Höhepunkt systematisch-systemischen Philosophierens. Als solches führt es ein Denken zur Vollendung, dessen Kern darin besteht, Inbegriff von Begründung zu sein. Somit aber besetzt es den gesamten Raum des Denkbaren, in dem schon alle Kritik im und am Denken durchgeführt ist. Sinnvolle Kritik am System scheint unmöglich, ohne dieses zugleich zu affirmieren oder aber selbst der Sinnlosigkeit anheim zu fallen. Jacobi unternimmt den Versuch, einen Modus der Kritik (...) zu finden, der einerseits aus der Systemlogik selbst erwächst, zugleich aber darin nicht verhaftet bleibt. Ihm gelingt dieses Kunststück, indem er akkurate Rekonstruktion mit lebensweltlicher Erfahrung verschränkt und sich der Systemlogik mit einem Sprung entzieht. Das Sprunggeschehen der sogenannten Unphilosophie zu rekonstruieren und nun auch mit dem System des reifen Hegel zu konfrontieren, unternimmt diese Untersuchung. Die Leitfrage lautet dabei, ob Jacobi auch aus Hegels elaboriertem System gesprungen wäre oder aber der erweiterte Systembegriff seine Kritik obsolet gemacht hat. (shrink)

Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi , Philosoph und Schriftsteller, wirkte 1772-1779, bevor er mit dem Spinozastreit als Philosoph berühmt wurde, als Wirtschaftspolitiker in kurfürstlichen Diensten, und zwar als Hofkammerat und Geheimrat in den Rheinlanden und kurze Zeit in Bayern . Aufbauend auf die Theorien der sog. Physiokraten, z.B. eines Turgot, und der Freihandelslehre Adam Smith kämpfte er, wenn auch mit bescheidenen Erfolgen, für einen von staatlicher Bevormundung freien Markt. Aufgrund bisher unbekannter Dokumente wird diese Tätigkeit minutiös rekonstruiert. Philosophisch eine nicht unbedeutende (...) Komponente in der Ausbildung moderner Vertragstheorien, erscheint sie theoriegeschichtlich als ökonomische Leistung, die nachhaltig auf die Herausbildung moderner Wirtschaftsformen eingewirkt hat. (shrink)

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 1969. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

"The choice we have is not between reasonable proposals and an unreasonable utopianism. Utopian thinking does not undermine or discount real reforms. Indeed, it is almost the opposite: practical reforms depend on utopian dreaming."--Russell Jacoby, _Picture Imperfect_ Utopianism suffers from an image problem: A recent exhibition on utopias in Paris and New York included photographs of Hitler's _Mein Kampf_ and a Nazi concentration camp. Many observers judge utopians and their sympathizers as foolhardy dreamers at best and murderous totalitarians at worst. (...) However, as noted social critic and historian Russell Jacoby argues in this salient, polemical, and innovative work, not only has utopianism been unfairly characterized, a return to an iconoclastic utopian spirit is vital for today's society. Shaped by the works of Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Gustav Landauer, and other predominantly Jewish thinkers, iconoclastic utopianism revives society's dormant political imagination and offers hope for a better future. Writing against the grain of history, Jacoby reexamines the anti-utopian mindset and identifies how utopian thought came to be regarded with such suspicion. He challenges standard readings of such anti-utopian classics as _1984_ and _Brave New World_ and offers stinging critiques of the influential liberal and anti-utopian theorists Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, and Karl Popper. He argues that these thinkers mistakenly equate utopianism with totalitarianism. The reputation of utopian thought has also suffered from the failures of, what Jacoby terms, the blueprint utopian tradition and its oppressive emphasis on detailing all aspects of society and providing fantastic images of the future. In contrast, the iconoclastic utopians, like those who follow God's prohibition against graven images, resist both the blueprinters' obsession with detail and the modern seduction of images. Jacoby suggests that by learning from the hopeful spirit of iconoclastic utopians and their willingness to accept new possibilities for society, we open ourselves to new and more imaginative ideas of the future. (shrink)

"The choice we have is not between reasonable proposals and an unreasonable utopianism. Utopian thinking does not undermine or discount real reforms. Indeed, it is almost the opposite: practical reforms depend on utopian dreaming."--Russell Jacoby, _Picture Imperfect_ Utopianism suffers from an image problem: A recent exhibition on utopias in Paris and New York included photographs of Hitler's _Mein Kampf_ and a Nazi concentration camp. Many observers judge utopians and their sympathizers as foolhardy dreamers at best and murderous totalitarians at worst. (...) However, as noted social critic and historian Russell Jacoby argues in this salient, polemical, and innovative work, not only has utopianism been unfairly characterized, a return to an iconoclastic utopian spirit is vital for today's society. Shaped by the works of Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Gustav Landauer, and other predominantly Jewish thinkers, iconoclastic utopianism revives society's dormant political imagination and offers hope for a better future. Writing against the grain of history, Jacoby reexamines the anti-utopian mindset and identifies how utopian thought came to be regarded with such suspicion. He challenges standard readings of such anti-utopian classics as _1984_ and _Brave New World_ and offers stinging critiques of the influential liberal and anti-utopian theorists Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, and Karl Popper. He argues that these thinkers mistakenly equate utopianism with totalitarianism. The reputation of utopian thought has also suffered from the failures of, what Jacoby terms, the blueprint utopian tradition and its oppressive emphasis on detailing all aspects of society and providing fantastic images of the future. In contrast, the iconoclastic utopians, like those who follow God's prohibition against graven images, resist both the blueprinters' obsession with detail and the modern seduction of images. Jacoby suggests that by learning from the hopeful spirit of iconoclastic utopians and their willingness to accept new possibilities for society, we open ourselves to new and more imaginative ideas of the future. (shrink)

In Preludes to Pragmatism: Toward A Reconstruction of Philosophy, Phillip Kitcher argues in Chapter 6, “Does ‘Race’ Have a Future” that developments in evolutionary biology may support a separation of our species into subcategories that could be regarded as races. The human species, he argues, could possibly be divided, using a similar methodology to that employed by evolutionary biologists, into relatively stable and isolated breeding populations that bear distinctive and salient clusters of significant genotypic and phenotypic traits. Hence, the eliminativist (...) claim that there is nothing in the world that corresponds to our use of the term ‘race’ is mistaken. There is, in short, a scientifically legitimate.. (shrink)

An important feature of so-called rational decision making, at least in times of crisis, is arational: that is, our ability to decide manifests features of our characters or the values we hold rather than our reasoning abilities.1 Such a position stands in obvious opposition to the Western philosophical tradition. Consider, by comparison, the view of Immanuel Kant, who held that reason could, and perhaps sometimes ought to, operate independently of (and in opposition to) our sentiments. Contrary to Kant, William James (...) argues in "The Sentiment of Rationality" that arational mental states and phenomena—such as feelings, emotions, values, and attitudes—are indispensable to practical rationality (317). The attempt to .. (shrink)

This paper begins with a presentation of some important aspects of the science behind global warming. Following that, I argue that attempts to address global warming and climate change as problems facing humanity ought not to center around economic understandings of the problem or it solutions. Moreover, I argue that pragmatism is especially vulnerable to this sort of misappropriation in seeking solutions to climate change, and that environmental pragmatists ought to make a conscious effort to avoid potential mischaracterizations of pragmatism (...) by providing a clearer sense of the boundaries that delimit its approach to climate change, or any other environmental crisis. (shrink)

Alain Locke, the central promoter of the Harlem Renaissance, is placed in conversation with leading philosophers and cultural figures in the modern world, from Aristotle to Obama. For teachers and students of contemporary debates in pragmatism, diversity, and value theory, these conversations' define new-and controversial-terrain.

Jacobi’s importance in the history of German philosophy has long been recognized. Yet his writings have been little studied in the English-speaking world, mainly because very few of them have been translated. George di Giovanni’s translation and edition of some of Jacobi’s main philosophical writings now fills this serious gap. This is the first major scholarly edition in English of Jacobi’s writings. The quality of the translation and the editing set a high standard for future work. Giovanni’s (...) translations capture the freshness and fluency of the German original, and his scholarly notes leave nothing to be desired in thoroughness and erudition. But it is not only students who will appreciate this volume. The long introduction, and the many notes, will be useful even for specialists. It is among the very best scholarship on Jacobi in any language. (shrink)

H. L. A Hart complained about the ambiguity of legal positivism, and proposed a definition that refers to particular explications of the concept of law, to certain theories of legal interpretation, to particular views on the moral problem of a duty to obey the law, and to a sceptical position with regard to the meta-ethical issue of the possibility of moral knowledge. It is said to be restricted to the Thesis of Separation — the contention that there is no necessary (...) connection between law and morals. In this chapter, the Separation Thesis is discussed even further, and has three shortcomings identified: first, that it has been vacillating between object-level contentions about moral qualities of the law; that the precise logical relation between both levels has never been properly accounted for; and that the question of necessary relations between morality and law hinges crucially on the presupposition that the very concept of law itself does not unravel into different sets of convenient stipulations from different epistemological angles, each of which renders the question of such necessary relations trivial. The Separation Thesis is also identified as having two versions: the Fallibility Law and the Neutrality Law. (shrink)

Philosophizing the Americas establishes the field of inter-American philosophy. Bringing together contributors who work in Africana Philosophy, Afro-Caribbean philosophy, Latin American philosophy, Afro-Latin philosophy, decolonial theory, and African American philosophy, the volume examines the full range of traditions that have, separately and in conversation with each other, worked through how philosophy in both establishes itself in the Americas and engages with the world from which it emerges. The book traces a range of questions, from the history of philosophy in the (...) Americas to philosophical questions of race, feminism, racial eliminativism, creolization, epistemology, coloniality, aesthetics, and literature. The essays place an impressive range of philosophical traditions and figures into dialogue with one another: some familiar, such as José Martí, Sylvia Wynter, Martin R. Delany, José Vasconcelos, Alain Locke, as well as such less familiar thinkers as Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, Hilda Hilst, and George Lamming. In each chapter, the contributors find fascinating and productive matrices of tension or convergence in works throughout the Americas. The result is an original and important contribution to knowledge that introduces readers from various disciplines to unfamiliar yet compelling ideas and considers familiar texts from novel and prescient perspectives. Philosophizing the Americas stands alone as a representation of current scholarly debates in the field of inter-American philosophy. Contributors: Stephanie Rivera Berruz, Jacoby Adeshei Carter, Nadia Celis, Tommy J. Curry, Hernando A. Estévez, Daniel Fryer, James B. Haile III, Chike Jeffers, Lee A. McBride III, Michael Monahan, Adriana Novoa, Susana Nuccetelli, Andrea J. Pitts, Dwayne A. Tunstall, and Alejandro A. Vallega. (shrink)

This paper presents an adaptive logic enhancement of conditional logics of normality that allows for defeasible applications of Modus Ponens to conditionals. In addition to the possibilities these logics already offer in terms of reasoning about conditionals, this way they are enriched by the ability to perform default inferencing. The idea is to apply Modus Ponens defeasibly to a conditional and a fact on the condition that it is ‘safe' to do so concerning the factual and conditional knowledge at hand. (...) It is for instance not safe if the given information describes exceptional circumstances: although birds usually fly, penguins are exceptional to this rule. The two adaptive standard strategies are shown to correspond to different intuitions, a skeptical and a credulous reasoning type, which manifest themselves in the handling of so-called floating conclusions. (shrink)

This article begins with a consideration of the standard argument for the moral equality of soldiers; namely, that soldiers are morally equal because they pose similar dangers to one another. Next, arguments for the equal application of the rules of war to both sides are considered and ultimately rejected. In the end, it is argued that if the justice of the cause for war is attributable to the warriors on either side, then modifying or unequally applying the rules of war (...) is in some cases the morally appropriate thing to do. (shrink)

This paper considers the increasingly common suggestion that a new form of warfare has emerged. It clarifies the notion of new wars and responds to an argument for the claim that in order to achieve military parity non-state actors must violate just war principles. I reject the claim that violation of just war principles is necessary and argue that we can make reasonable normative judgments about new wars in terms of just war theory. From there, I consider the possibility that (...) military parity can be achieved in a way that does not violate these principles and argue that it is permissible for relatively weak non-state actors to fight with fewer restrictions than conventional states. (shrink)

This paper considers the increasingly common suggestion that a new form of warfare has emerged. It clarifies the notion of new wars and responds to an argument for the claim that in order to achieve military parity non-state actors must violate just war principles. I reject the claim that violation of just war principles is necessary and argue that we can make reasonable normative judgments about new wars in terms of just war theory. From there, I consider the possibility that (...) military parity can be achieved in a way that does not violate these principles and argue that it is permissible for relatively weak non-state actors to fight with fewer restrictions than conventional states. (shrink)

According to the received view the later Wittgenstein subscribed to the thesis that speaking a language requires being guided by rules (thesis RG). In this paper we question the received view. On its most intuitive reading, we argue, (RG) is very much at odds with central tenets of the later Wittgenstein. Giving up on this reading, however, threatens to deprive the notion of rule-following of any real substance. Consequently, the rule-following considerations cannot charitably be read as a deep and subtle (...) defense of (RG) against the threat of paradox, as proponents of the received view are wont to do. Instead, we argue, the rule-following considerations provide Wittgenstein's deep and subtle reasons for rejecting the very idea that speaking a language involves rule-guidance. Although Wittgenstein subscribed to (RG) during his middle period writings, his later remarks on rules, far from being a clarification and elaboration of his earlier views, are directed against the claim of the middle period that speaking a language is an essentially rule-guided activity. (shrink)

Recollection is sometimes automatic in that details of a prior encounter with an item come to mind although those details are irrelevant to a current task. For example, when asked about the size of the type in which an item was earlier presented, one might automatically recollect the location in which it was presented. We used the process dissociation procedure to show that such noncriterial recollection can function as familiarity—its effects were independent of intended recollection.

Wars and crises worldwide force millions of people to flee and seek refuge, often outside their countries of origin. What moral responsibilities do states have towards refugees? In this Ethical Annotation, Dr Jos Philips and his co-authors zoom in on the responsibilities of EU countries. They consider arguments in favour of and against admitting refugees and argue that EU countries must do at least at much as they can do at little cost, and perhaps even more.

ḳunṭres 1. ʼOr ha-emunah --ḳunṭres 2. Śimḥah ṿe-hitḥazḳut, ha-derekh le-hatsalah li-nevukhim.